As the Blue Jays get set to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, thoughts turn to the team’s original mascot.

Kevin Shanahan, the creator of BJ Birdy, was there when the Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.

Shanahan made his first appearance dancing and pumping up Blue Jays crowds at the tail end of the 1979 season. He remembered being offered an in-game audition by team executives after he was seen dressed in a bird suit on the pages of the and yearning to work for the fledgling ballclub, which entered the league in 1977.

“My father knew Barry Gray, a photographer who worked for the at the time,” Shanahan told the in September 1999.

“Barry thought it would make a good photo … My picture ended up on the front page.”

Shanahan, the cousin

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